Top 5 Breakdown
- The Lego Batman Movie – £4,435,521 – £17,445,478
Dropping 41% in its second weekend (19% not including previews) must be a little disappointing after The Lego Batman Movie received positive reviews and buzz as The Lego Movie three years ago; The Lego Movie in comparison dropped only 1% in its second weekend taking £5.97m and £21.87m in February 2015.
Over the last seven days, The Lego Batman Movie has taken £9.54m and £5.1m during Mon-Thurs last week which compares to almost £8m for The Lego Movie; might have thought box office was squeezed by Sing adding £3.12m over half term but Mr Peabody and Sherman took £2.96m in 2014 against The Lego Movie. Despite receiving positive reviews and strong word of mouth audiences weren’t as excited to see Batman as were for Emmet Brickowski in 2014.
After 12 days on release, The Lego Batman Movie is 20% down from The Lego Movie £21.88m Vs £17.44m. If The Lego Batman Movie was to hold similar to The Lego Movie it will take about £27m will be similar to the inferior Sing which has benefited from being the first family film released.
- Fifty Shades Darker – £3,437,448 – £16,712,705
Down 54.4% in its second weekend Fifty Shades Darker dropped less than the original Fifty Shades of Grey in 2015 which dropped 66% taking £4.59m in its second weekend but after opening with 43% more £13.27m Vs £7.55m. After 10 days on release, Fifty Shades Darker has taken 34% less than Fifty Shades of Grey £16.71m Vs £25.2m.
After losing the opening weekend to The Lego Batman Movie due to previews topped the chart Mon-Wed last week taking £2m on Valentine’s Day, but despite this still took 22.5% less than Fifty Shades of Grey Mon-Thurs taking £5.71m compared to £7.37m.
Fifty Shades Darker second-weekend drop was far lower than similar female-focused films Sex and the City and sequel and the Twilight films for which Fifty Shades of Grey was fan fiction. Despite being the end of half-term The Lego Batman Movie stayed top on Monday.
While the marketplace is much more crowded for Fifty Shades Darker compared to Fifty Shades of Grey the films that opened around it are targeting different audience demographics; children with The Lego Batman Movie and Sing, males with John Wick: Chapter 2 and The Great Wall and older audiences with the Oscar nominees Hidden Figures, Moonlight and Fences none of which should have had much effect on Fifty Shades Darker.
Fifty Shades Darker has become the ninth highest grossing 18 rated film in the UK but cannot be compared with any of them bar Fifty Shades of Grey as whilst being an 18 film the audience for the film is the teenagers that watched Twilight films in 2009-2012 who are now 18+. The other 18 highest grossing films apart from Fifty Shades of Grey, The Wolf of Wall Street, Gone Girl, Hannibal, American Beauty, Seven, The Silence of the Lambs the audience is far older who don’t go to the cinema as often.
Fifty Shades Darker should end with about £22m which will be about 40% less than Fifty Shades of Grey. The final film Fifty Shades Freed opens next February faces much tougher competition than The Lego Batman Movie opening against Shane Black’s Predator sequel and a week later Marvel’s Black Panther which will likely see the third film taking even less.
| Second-weekend drops | |||||||||||||
| Film | Year | O W/E | 2nd WE | Drop | 2 W/E T | final BO | % OWE | ||||||
| Sex and the City | Ent | 2008 | £8.76m | £3.08m | 65% | £16.06m | £26.4m | 33.1% | |||||
| Twilight: New Moon | eOne | 2009 | £11.68m | £4.30m | 63% | £20.32m | £27.4cm | 42.6% | |||||
| Sex and the City 2 | WB | 2010 | £6.14m | £2.47m | 60% | £13.65m | £21.6m | 28.4% | |||||
| Twilight: Eclipse | eOne | 2010 | £13.76m | £3.39m | 75% | £22.09m | £29.7m | 46.3% | |||||
| Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 1 | eOne | 2011 | £13.91m | £4.57m | 67% | £23.10m | £30.7m | 45.3% | |||||
| Twilight Breaking Dawn Part 2 | eOne | 2012 | £15.85m | £5.34m | 66% | £26.97m | £35.8m | 44.2% | |||||
| Fifty Shades of Grey | Univ | 2015 | £13.27m | £4.56m | 66% | £25.2m | £35.1m | 37.8% | |||||
| Fifty Shades Darker | Univ | 2017 | £7.56m | £3.44m | 44% | £16.71m | £20.8m* | £22m* | |||||
As with Fifty Shades of Grey, Fifty Shades Darker soundtrack debuted at number 1 in the US selling 123,000 copies of which 72,000 were actual sales. This compares to 258,000 copies for Fifty Shades of Grey in 2015.
The first single Taylor Swift and Zayn’s I Don’t Wanna Live Forever released in December was a top five hit pales in comparison to Ellie Goulding’s Love Me Like You Do was UK #1 for several weeks selling more than 118,000 copies and was then fastest-selling single of the year; setting a new UK audio streaming record with 2.58 million listens in past 7 days and on Spotify streamed 15,468,762 up to February 23rd 2015.
As with when the first film was released there have been several stories that have gone viral the release of Fifty Shades Darker; the first a cucumber was found in a cinema in Australia was a prank; second was a cinema in Ireland that ‘banned single men or married men on their own from seeing it and the latest was a man was arrested for public indecency in a cinema in France.
- John Wick: Chapter 2 – £2,232,055 – NE
After taking £249,000 from Valentine’s Day previews helping build strong word of mouth along with receiving positive reviews John Wick: Chapter 2 has already taken more than the first film took in April 2015 opened 6 months after opening in the US a week after Fast & Furious 7 with £539,602 taking £1.5m despite receiving positive reviews became a huge success on home entertainment.
While the marketplace is crowded with Oscar contenders John Wick: Chapter 2 will likely have a strong second weekend but face tough competition in two weeks’ time with the arrival of Hugh Jackman’s final Wolverine film Logan which has received very positive reviews.
As many 80s actors Keanu Reeves, has had a very up and down acting career with a very mixed slate of films of different genres as Johnny Depp and Nicholas Cage their follow-up choices of blockbusters hasn’t always been that successful; 1989’s Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure was his breakthrough role followed by Parenthood but then starred in the flop I Love You to Death, followed up with 1991’s Point Break and Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey both moderate successes along with Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Much Ado About Nothing but then made two independent films Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and Little Buddha both disappointed before 1994’s Speed (tenth biggest film in the UK taking £10.2m).
After Speed starred in several flops Johnny Mnemonic, A Walk in the Clouds, Chain Reaction and turned down starring in Speed 2. 1997’s Devil’s Advocate took £5.12m and The Matrix blew audiences away in 1999 opening with £3.38m taking £16.91m. The Replacements, The Watcher, The Gift, Sweet November, and Hardball followed all disappointing at the box office before returning to The Matrix in 2003 with The Matrix Reloaded opening with £12.16m taking £32.51m and The Matrix Revolutions opening with £8.71m and taking £17.75m.
His films since have had mixed success Something’s Gotta Give in 2004 opening £1.2m taking £6.68m, Constantine in 2005 opening £2.09m taking £6.45m, The Lake House in 2006 £761,465m taking £2.75m, The Day the Earth Stood Still in 2008 opened £2.75m taking £6.95m and 47 Ronin in 2013 opening with £1.41m taking £2.72m but there were also many that disappointed.
Next for Keanu Reeves is Replicas with the continued rumours of a new Bill & Ted film 28 years after the first film was released along with The Matrix 4 but doubtful either will ever get made.
- Sing – £2,108,203 – £23,459,874
Due to last weekend being half-term dropped only 8.8% in its fourth weekend the strong holder of Sing is likely the reason why The Lego Batman Movie has performed below the previous The Lego Movie despite receiving far better reviews; Sing added £3.12m last week Mon-Thurs during half term.
After four weeks on release has overtaken total box office of the original Despicable Me; while The Secret Life of Pets, Minions and Despicable Me 2 had only taken around 65% of their final box office due to having a boost from summer holidays Sing has likely taken around 80% of its final box office and will likely add about £5m to its current box office ending with about £28m.
After four weeks, previous Illumination films box office
| OWE | 2nd w/e | 3rd w/e | 4th w/e | 4th T | total | |||
| The Secret Life of Pets | 24 Jun 2016 | £9.58m | £4.72m | £3.62m | £2.05m | £25.74m | £36.43m | 70.65% |
| Minions | 26 Jun 2015 | £11.55m | £.3.7m | £4.14m | £2.70m | £32.29m | £47.25m | 68.33% |
| Despicable Me 2 | 28 Jun 2013 | £14.78m | £3.9m | £2.25m | £1.85m | £30.27m | £47.4m | 63.86% |
| Despicable Me | 15 Oct 2010 | £3.66m | £2.58m | £2.58m | £1.17m | £16.86m | £21.2m | 79.52% |
- The Great Wall – £1.646,516 – NE
Despite poor reviews and opening against Jack Wick: Chapter 2 The Great Wall still managed to open ahead of Hidden Figures but this was probably due to the box office cannibalization of Hidden Figures, Fences and Moonlight along with the controversy surrounding the film. As with Scarlett Johansson in the upcoming Ghost in the Shell remake, many took issue with the “Hollywood whitewashing” casting Matt Damon in the lead in a film based on Chinese history.
Normally studio films are made for US audiences first but The Great Wall was made for Chinese audiences first and without much thought for the rest of the world. Does question the logic of casting Matt Damon over an Asian actor in the lead, but the casting was probably more to show Legendary Pictures owned by Chinese company Wanda can make Hollywood style films in China; The Great Wall has taken $244m internationally including $170m in China being made by a Chinese-owned company the distributor will receive far more than their normal 20% of final box office rentals.
Ahead of the release of The Great Wall Twitter wanted to thank Matt Damon for being their saviour and the impact he has had on Asian culture and people used hashtag #ThankYouMattDamon to thank him for the many other things he has done for China.
It was the director Zhang Yimou biggest UK opening ahead of 2004’s Hero’s £1.05m; tickets prices have increased by over 65%. With poor reviews and word of mouth, The Great Wall is unlikely to match Hero’s final box office of £3.56m.
The Great Wall was Matt Damon’s first film since last year’s Jason Bourne opened with £7.59m; 2015’s The Martian opened with £6.52m; Interstellar opened with £5.36m and The Monuments Men opened with £1.61m both in 2014.
After comparing The Great Wall poster with other Matt Damon film posters do wonder if creative team behind designing the poster was Siobhan Sharpe from Perfect Curve. After much debate, they thought using Matt Damon’s big head on its poster was its unique USP was not having words across unlike Elysium, The Martian, and Jason Bourne.
Upcoming Matt Damon teams up again with Suburbicon George Clooney’s sixth film as a director and first since 2014’s The Monuments Men also starred Matt Damon and Downsizing directed by Alexander Payne both set for release at the end of the year. Then a rumored cameo in Ocean’s Eight (opening in June 2018) have the biggest cast of a film in recent years including Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway, Rihanna, Sarah Paulson, Mindy Kaling, Awkwafina, Damian Lewis, James Corden, Dakota Fanning, Richard Armitage and Adriana Lima. With cameos including Anna Wintour, Alexander Wang, Zac Posen, Derek Blasberg, Lauren Santo Domingo, Kim Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, Katie Holmes, Olivia Munn, Hailey Baldwin, and Zayn Malik.
Also, released
Hidden Figures -20th Century Fox – £1,448,214 from 489 screens (included £230,00 from last weekend’s previews) opened in a disappointing sixth after receiving positive reviews and strong word of mouth from a talker screening program. Hidden Figures was never likely to repeat its success in the UK but wasn’t helped opening against two other Best Film nominees and cinemagoers would only see one of the three films over the weekend.
With a quiet weekend for new releases, this coming weekend Hidden Figures as Fences and Moonlight which expands could hold well as word of mouth spreads.
Hidden Figures has been compared a lot to The Help its opening was 60% more than The Help which opened with £896,387 in October 2011 taking £3.86m.
Moonlight – Altitude – £621,836 from 85 screens (included £253,924 from previews) opened strongly after receiving very positive reviews seen by many as the film that deserves to win Best Film Oscar this weekend but ever since La La Land premiered last September it was always odds on to win. Moonlight expands into 177 screens this weekend.
Fences – Paramount – £377,000 from 148 screens is the biggest disappointment which wasn’t unexpected as even though stars and is directed by Denzel Washington and Viola Davis is likely to win Best Actress Oscar on Sunday. (will expand this weekend) was always going to be a hard sell to UK audiences. This was made even tougher opening against the likes of Hidden Figures and Moonlight must ask the logic by distributors to open the three films against them as all it did was cannibalized them.
The Founder – Studiocanal – £231,716 (including £29,125 from previews) from 181 screens
Moulin Rouge – Secret Cinema – £376,900 from first six days starting an 11-week run with 56 screenings with tickets from £59 they can’t be compared to normal box office. Previous Secret Cinema events; Dirty Dancing £1.90m, 28 Days Later £1.33m and The Empire Strikes Back £6.32m.
Oscars Preview
With the Oscars, this weekend the wonderful Screenjunkies have created their own unique guide to this year’s Best Film nominees. After months of hype Oscar winners are probably sadly more predictable this year than recent years La La Land is expected to win Best Film, Best Director and Best Actress and Supporting Actress expected for Fences the only two major awards that could go either way are Best Actor Casey Affleck or Denzel Washington after winning Golden Globe Casey Affleck was favourite to win but in recent weeks many have said Denzel Washington could win.
Ever since La La Land premiere in August at the Venice Film Festival it was odds on to win Best Film at the Oscars there are many far better films than La La Land but after critics labeled it as “the film we need now” the hype started.
Being a nostalgic film looking back at Hollywood’s glorious past is the kind of film the Academy laps up in recent years and films about Hollywood from Argo, The Artist, and Birdman winners in recent years La La Land was surely going to join them.
While I liked La La Land when I saw it for me it’s a repeat of 2006 when Crash surprised everyone winning over Brokeback Mountain in years to come when the memberries wear off people will look back at 2017 and wonder why did La La Land win over so many far better films.
This year all Best Picture nominees apart from Hell or High Water and Arrival are still in play in cinemas why the marketplace is so cannibalized a major Oscar win could see their box office boost by up to 25% which would see La La Land end with about £35m which would see it becoming Lionsgate biggest film in the UK.
Best Picture Nominees 2017 UK box office to date
| La La Land | Lionsgate | 13 Jan 2017 | £6.59m | £28.29m |
| Arrival | eOne | 10 Nov 2016 | £2.92m | £9.4m |
| Hacksaw Ridge | Lionsgate | 27 Jan 2017 | £1.49m | £4.94m |
| Hidden Figures | 20th Century Fox | 17 Feb 2017 | £1.44m | £1.44m |
| Lion | Entertainment | 20 Jan 2017 | £1.27m | £8.01m |
| Manchester By the Sea | Studiocanal | 13 Jan 2017 | £729,478 | £3.01m |
| Moonlight | Attitude | 17 Feb 2017 | £620,636 | £620,636 |
| Hell or High Water | Studiocanal | 9 Sept 2016 | £552,230 | £1.74m |
| Fences | Paramount | 10 Feb 2017 | £102,688 | £567,000 |
Last year only a couple of Best Picture nominees were still in play by Oscar night after their Oscar wins they saw an increase their box office of between 8%- 27%
Best Picture Nominees 2016 UK box office
| Bridge of Spies | Fox | 27 Nov 2015 | £1.67m | n/a | £7.43m | |
| Mad Max: Fury Road | Warner | 15 May 2015 | £4.53m | n/a | £17.20m | |
| The Revenant | Fox | 15 Jan 2016 | £5.07m | £21.04m | £22.86m | 8.6% |
| Spotlight | eOne | 29 Jan 2016 | £1.05m | £4.38m | £5.57m | 27% |
| The Martian | Fox | 30 Sept 2015 | £6.52m | n/a | £23.32m | |
| The Big Short | Paramount | 22 Jan 2016 | £1.25m | £5.02m | £5.49m | 9.3% |
| Room | Studiocanal | 15 Jan 2016 | £0.62m | £3.04m | £3.77m | 24% |
| Brooklyn | Lionsgate | 6 Nov 2015 | £1.04m | n/a | £5.64m |
Other box office news
This weekend’s top 10 box office took £18,070,709 down 19.9% from last weekend £22,550,909;
Weekend admissions 2,600,599 down 17% from last week 3,043,308
Weekend was up 11.3% from last year (£16,221,692) How to Be Single £1,874,218, Triple Nine £813,817 and The Finest Hours £246,768 opened
In 2015: (£21,497,481): The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel £3,733,969, Focus £1,905,729, The Boy Next Door £406,171 and It Follows £366,382 opened.
Next weekend in 2016: (£9,392,604) Grimsby £1,920,592, The Forest £444,784, Secret in their Eyes £116,023 opened.
Admissions for January are reportedly up 6.9% from 2016; 15m in 2017 Vs 14.029m in 2016.
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Cinema Exhibitors Association average ticket price of £7.41 for 2016 up only 2.77% from 2015 despite a 7.3% increase from 2014. If the same percentage was used 2016 average ticket price would be £7.74.
Adding a couple of extra columns for the chart using screens a film is playing on have screen average in pounds and people if that figure is then divided between performances would mean there were on average 66 people per showing if the screens were 200 seaters would mean only a 33% capacity.
UK Box Office Top 10 
US Box office
The Lego Batman Movie held top spot for a second weekend down 35.4% taking $34.22m and $98.79m; after receiving positive reviews and strong buzz after opening 20% less than many expected which would have been close to The Lego Movie three years ago, its opening was 23% less than The Lego Movie and its second weekend drop was similar to The Lego Movie 27.8% compared with 35.4% but total box office was 24% less than The Lego Movie after 10 days on release. If The Lego Batman Movie continues to hold similar it could take close to $200m.
Fifty Shades Darker dropped far less than Fifty Shades of Grey which dropped 73.9% in its second weekend compared with 55%. After 10 days on release the sequel is 30% down from the first film $89.6m Vs $129.1m if the sequel continues to hold as it is will end with $110m+; would see the final film Fifty Shades Freed taking about $70m next February.
The Great Wall as most predicted had a disappointing opening in third taking $18.1m (received B CinemaScore after receiving poor reviews). With a $150m budget the film has taken over $244m worldwide with $170m from China it’s another failure for Legendary Pictures in the US. With China now owning and having a major influence on large parts of the industry will this be a glimpse of the future with Chinese owners wanting films to have a Chinese element to films which has been done before with films including Transformers Age of Extinction, Furious 7, Rogue One and xXx: The Return of Xander Cage (after disappointing elsewhere opened with $100m in China this week).
John Wick: Chapter 2 has a similar second-weekend drop as its original film having already taken 36% more than the first film total box office $58.69m Vs $43.1m. The sequel has also out-grossed the original film’s international box office taking $90m Vs $88m with several key international openings still to come.
Fist Fight had the average opening in fifth taking $12m received B CinemaScore and likely take $30-35m which is close to other low budget New Line comedies in recent years.
Hidden Figures drops out of the top five only taking $7.3m dropping 11.3% in its ninth weekend taking $142m and $163.9m worldwide. La La Land was down to ninth taking $4.5m taking $133.5m with its Oscars wins next weekend will likely see it take another $20m over the coming weeks.
US Box Office Top 10
Opened February 24th
Opening UK
- A Cure For Wellness – 20th Century Fox
Psychological horror thriller starring Dane DeHaan, Jason Isaacs and Mia Goth and directed by Gore Verbinski; had premiere in December at the Butt-Numb-A-Thon Film Festival in Austin, Texas; received mixed reviews from critics.
Its director Gore Verbinski since 2013’s flop The Lone Ranger; while better known now for directing the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films 15 years ago, he directed the first American remake of Rings in 2002 opened with £3.2m taking £9.45m.
With Split played out and other recent horrors underwhelming there could be room in the crowded market for a horror especially over a quiet weekend for new releases. This weekend is the calm before the storm of Logan, Kong: Skull Island and Beauty and the Beast opening over the next three weekends
As part of its marketing campaign, 20th Century Fox planted Trump-Putin fake news stories claiming that President Donald Trump met with Vladimir Putin at a remote wellness centre in the Swiss Alps prior to the November 2016 U.S. presidential election. The news story featured on The Sacramento Dispatch website.
Some people criticised the planting of fake news Fox and Regency responded in a statement, “A Cure for Wellness is a movie about a ‘fake’ cure that makes people sicker. As part of this campaign, a ‘fake’ wellness site healthandwellness.co was created and we partnered with a fake news creator to publish fake news. As our movie’s antagonist says, ‘There is a sickness inside us. And only when we know what ails us, can we hope to find the cure.”
A few days later 20th Century Fox apologised for planting fake news. The film had a disappointing opening in the US last weekend but of course, it’s unknown if the fake news had anything to do with it or was it the mixed reviews it had received and the continued strong performance of Split.
- Patriot’s Day – Lionsgate
Drama-thriller starring Mark Wahlberg, J. K. Simmons, John Goodman, Kevin Bacon and Michelle Monaghan and directed by Peter Berg based on the book Boston Strong by Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge.
Had its world premiere at AFI Fest in November 2016 receiving positive reviews opening on limited release in the US in December to qualify for Oscar but was never likely to receive nominations. Suffered when it expanded on January 13th against the Oscar contenders despite receiving an A+ CinemaScore disappointed at the box office taking half the box office of Deepwater Horizon also directed by Peter Berg and starring Mark Wahlberg which took $61m in September also a disappointment.
There was a debate if it was too soon after the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings for a film to be made; while Mark Wahlberg called Patriot’s Day the most important film of his career.
Mark Wahlberg has had mixed success over recent years at the UK box office with his serious films underwhelming Deepwater Horizon taking £5.27m in in September 2016, 2015’s The Gambler opening with £381,554 and 2014’s Lone Survivor opening with £751,564 taking £1.63m. Having success with 2014’s Transformers: Age of Extinction and 2015’s Daddy’s Home and stars in sequels for both this year.
- Within – Warner
Horror starring Michael Vartan and Erin Moriarty and directed by Phil Claydon from a script by the writers of The Conjuring started filming in March 24th 2014 for New Line.
Was originally called Within when announced in 2013, the title changed to Crawlspace returning to its original title.
After horror Gallows flopped in July 2014 Within/Crawlspace disappeared off release schedules surprisingly returning almost three years later to be given a limited release in the UK before finding it home on video.
Opening in US
- Collide – Open Road Films
Action starring Nicholas Hoult, Felicity Jones, Marwan Kenzari, Ben Kingsley, and Anthony Hopkins and directed by Eran Creevy (his previous film was the stylish 2013 action film Welcome to the Punch) and produced by Joel Silver. Was original set for release October 30th 2015 by Relativity Media but after they filed for bankruptcy producers resold it top Open Road who set an April 1st 2016 release date, was pushed back to August 19th and then February 3rd 2017 to its final date of February 24th.
Since Relativity Media went bankrupted in July 2015 it has put several films in release limbo including Kidnap and Animal Crackers. The films that were previously to be distributed by Relativity Media but released by other distributions since have all disappointed at the box office Jane Got a Gun, The Disappointments Room, and Masterminds and Collide will do similar.
- Get Out – Universal Pictures
Horror starring Daniel Kaluuya, Catherine Keener, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford and Caleb Landry Jones, written and directed by Jordan Peele; premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January receiving positive reviews.
With the trailer screened before Split and recent horrors including Rings and A Cure for Wellness underperforming at the box office